Paper Reading #13: TwinSpace: an Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces

Comments
Aaron Kirkes 
Cindy Skach


Reference Information
Title: TwinSpace: an Infrastructure for Cross-Reality Team Spaces
Authors: Derek F. Reilly, Hafez Rouzati, Andy Wu, Jee Yeon Hwang, Jeremy Brudvik, W. Keith Edwards
Where: UIST 2010

Summary
This paper discussed TwinSpace, a software infrastructure to combine actual workspaces with collaborative virtual worlds, to support interconnectivity and flexible mappings between physical and virtual spaces. Many collaborative, group-work spaces are created for only those members within a particular space, or those separated in location. This limits interaction, so TwinSpace includes both aspects to create virtual spaces that are connected with a physical smart space and that remote collaborators can join. This permits many actions disallowed by virtual spaces alone, allowing remote workers to have more available actions.

The key features of TwinSpace include a communications layer that links event-notification and transactions in virtual space to physical space, a common model for each space, mapping capability for managing synchronization between physical and virtual spaces, and specialized clients. It combines mixed presence (supports simultaneous collocated and remote collaboration) and cross-reality (integrates real and virtual worlds in a useful way). Events that occur in either the physical or virtual world can be published in the other world, allowing for easy collaboration. People in the physical space are also represented in the virtual space, and multiple rooms can be connected to a single virtual space at the same time. TwinSpace uses OpenWonderland and Event Heap for the virtual world engine and communications, respectively.

Two case studies were discussed that use TwinSpace. The first created a virtual team collaboration room that allowed for brainstorming ideas between members and for one person at a time to hold presentations for the other members of the room. This study was applied at weekly meetings and was used successfully, with some issues that could be improved. The second case study was a game that allowed players to collaborate according to virtual distance. Use of this study was not discussed.

An example of TwinSpace. The physical world is shown, and in the computer screen, the corresponding virtual world can be seen. Source: Article.

Discussion
While we have read articles about shared spaces and virtual collaboration rooms, this software seems to be the first to combine physical and virtual spaces. I think it's a good idea, as it would allow multiple people in multiple locations to communicate in the same ways and to effectively accomplish some goal. It was a little confusing as to how the system actually corresponds physical areas to virtual areas, and I would have liked to read about more user response regarding the system in order to see how it is percieved by those people that would be potentially using it on an everyday basis. Overall, though, I think this could be useful for industry projects in order to get feedback from people across the world.